The track and field team just embarked on a fruitful season with the talent of newcomers and seniority. 

“It’s going really well,” says Head Coach Candice Baldwin. “We have a really good team this year. It’s interesting, too, because we have a lot of both new freshmen and senior athletes.” 

The freshmen bring a lot of talent to Barstow’s track and field team this year, and have already proven to be willing to learn from their senior teammates. The team has great potential to be competitive this year alongside having the largest roster in the last five years. 

The team was excited to have their first meet on Thursday, March 28th, and to showcase the work that they put in during preseason and the first few weeks of practices. 

“We’re at a slight disadvantage with a week less practice compared to other schools because of our long spring break, but I’m really looking forward to it,” says Zoey Hrabe ‘24, a senior on the team.

Because track and field has so many different events that require different exercises and skills that have to be honed in during practice. To accomplish this as best as she can, Coach Baldwin splits up the practice structure during the week. 

“Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are days where we do distance and sprint workouts and follow those up with exercises for the field events,” she explains, while “Tuesdays and Thursdays I can spend more time with forms and skills for each individual kid. It’s the days where they get more one-on-one time. I feel like this structure gives us more opportunity to get better by dedicating so much time to each aspect of the sport.” 

However, with the diversity in events that track offers, team chemistry isn’t built the same way as it would be on the basketball court or soccer field. Track and field can encompass up to forty-four different events including (but not limited to) sprints, relays, distance running, hurdles, pole vault, shot put, javelin throwing, high jump, long jump, and triple jump.  

“Track is a very athletic and physically demanding sport,” explains Alex Franklin ‘24. “I feel like I see a lot of people who are capable get held back by their mentality. The biggest things we can do as teammates are to hold each other accountable and stay focused. We have a lot of younger talent and people who can do great things, but keeping our focus on our goals and holding each other responsible, even if we’re doing a workout everyone hates, is really important.”

To form bonds among themselves, the track team members unite during practices and outside of school. 

“Most of our workouts suck, but we all have to do them,” says Franklin. That mutual suffering does help bring us together. Accountability is a big thing,” he adds, “because track is so heavily focused on numbers and how well you do individually. It’s easier to point things out to help them improve and improve the team’s performance by extension.”

“The seniors on the track team are a close group, which helps out a lot,” adds Hrabe. “We also have team dinners before meets to help bring everyone together. Team bonding is really important to make sure that we’re a unified team.” 

“They’re a tight-knit group of kids. We have a lot of time bonding together that you don’t really get in other sports. You get grumpy with the cold and sweat under that tent during meets, and you learn to love each other even when faced with the less glamorous side of track,” agrees Coach Baldwin. 

Additionally, coaching a sport with so much diversity presents many of its own challenges. 

“Coaching track is wonderfully chaotic and wonderfully challenging,” explains Coach Baldwin. “It’s a team sport because you can place as a team at meets, but everything is based on the athlete’s individual performance. It’s hard to manage certain challenges, or everyone’s strengths and weaknesses all the time, but we are really lucky that we have athletes who want to grow, learn, and compete.”

The effort the student athletes put into the sport is what makes coaching track so fulfilling for Coach Baldwin. 

“I get to see the progression of each athlete over all four years of high school. I like to look at their development across that timeframe, too. When you see them shape themselves as the years go on like I do, you can see that they’re achieving their personal goals, too.”

While progress might be hard to see when faced with a plethora of running workouts, the accomplishments made by each member of the team at the end of the season is all thanks to that effort put in by each athlete. 

“I always like to see my students accomplish the goals they set for themselves because then they see they can do what was hard. They might complain about the exercises or about how challenging their event is, but they get to be proud of themselves, as they should be. They work hard for their success,” she adds. 

The environment on the track team is unique, and the people and differences highlighted in the sport have made the team a unique place to be, with the different focuses and welcoming atmosphere. Especially for the seniors.

“All of high school it’s been the people, even though it’s an individual sport, by nature it’s competitive, good practice for meets,” says Franklin. 

“I have liked hanging out with my track friends since freshman year. It’s always nice to be able to see them again. There’s a different energy at meets, and it’s a great environment,” agrees Hrabe. 

Coach Baldwin notes that the track team is “athletic, dedicated, resilient, and they have a lot of grit,” which will contribute to their success this season.  

There are a few meets athletes are looking forward to this season, including the relays at KU and the district meet. 

“If we qualify for stuff like jumping and running events, it would be a really cool experience for everyone to reach that standard,” explains Franklin. 

“I’m looking forward to districts because we haven’t been able to run a girls relay in the past few years,” adds Hrabe. “I think we might get a qualifying time in sectionals this year. I want to go to state and hopefully get first for pole vault, and I definitely think that Alex Franklin could make it again. We’re going to do our best and see how far that will get us.” 

“I’m excited to push each other to meet our goals and push each other to be competitive,” agrees Franklin.

Track at Barstow, unfortunately, is a sport that doesn’t get much support from the community. 

“Meets are far away, and that distance contributes to the lack of school spirit around them. Be conscious of the hard work the team members put in. It would help us focus a bit more to push ourselves for success. Ask about track. Make the team feel good and proud of what they’ve accomplished. We need to talk about it more and help people get hype behind it,” reminds Franklin. 

So, with that reminder, make sure to ask your peers about how they did in their last meet.

Maybe, you might even head out there to support them in person.